Terre Logsdon – Record-Bee staff
LAKEPORT The Board of Supervisors this week passed an ordinance that it hopes will help keep local lakes and waterways healthier.
In an effort to address the growing problem of non-native invasive aquatic plants, the board on Tuesday adopted an ordinance to prohibit sales of non-native, invasive aquatic plants, along with the Public Works Department”s Integrated Aquatic Plant Management Plan.
The Agricultural Commissioner”s Office proposed the ordinance on aquatic plants. Specifically, the measure is meant to protect the aquatic resources of the county from the introduction on non-native, invasive aquatic plants by prohibiting the possession, sale propagation or release of specific species and declaring such plants as nuisances.
“This ordinance will allow the Agricultural Department the authority and the ability to control and prohibit these weeds for sale, propagation or possession in Lake County,” explained Deputy Agricultural Commissioner Chuck Morse.
Historically, Morse said, invasive aquatic weeds were introduced when people dumped the contents of aquariums into area bodies of water. “People don”t know that it poses a threat,” Morse said.
Today, “more and more nurseries are promoting their aquatic plant selections as more homeowners have water features, such as ponds, in their yards,” Morse explained. Sometimes, he added, these plants make it to waterways, where they spread.
The Agricultural Department notified all nurseries and store owners throughout the county and the cities of Lakeport and Clearlake that this ordinance would be going into effect.
The list of invasive, non-native aquatic plants that are now banned in the county and will be regulated by the Agricultural Commissioner”s office are hydrilla, spatter dock or yellow pondlilly, water hyacinth, purple loosestrife, giant salvinia, Eurasian watermilfoil, South American spongeplant/frogbit, parrotfeather and Brazilian waterweed.
Morse reported that landowners are generally very cooperative and will remove these non-native plants when they learn they are invasive.
“Water primrose is one of the most severe right now,” Morse said, “but it may or may not be a native plant, so it”s not on the list.”
However, the Integrated Aquatic Plant Management Plan also adopted Tuesday does address water primrose. One of the plan”s key features is that it coordinates plant management activities by all public and private parties.
“It does this through a comprehensive single-source permitting program which ensures compliance with federal and state pesticide regulations, [California Department of Food and Agriculture”s] hydrilla program, the county agricultural commissioner, the California Department of Fish and Game and the State Water Resources Control Board,” according to a memo from Public Works Director Gerald Shaul.
“The primary goal of the plan is managing nuisance or noxious aquatic plant populations to support beneficial uses within Clear Lake,” Shaul wrote in the memo, “The program does not propose to eradicate aquatic plants”; it does, however, seek to manage them and minimize the potential for spreading and introducing them.
Contact Terre Logsdon at tlogsdon@record-bee.com.
At a glance
Learn more about
invasive aquatic plants
The County Agriculture Department will hold an invasive plant awareness tour on July 21. For more information, contact Deputy Agricultural Commissioner Chuck Morse, 263-0217.
The Integrated Aquatic Plant Management Plan can be viewed at the Public Works Department, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.
